2.2.1 Middleware Home and WebLogic Server Home Directories

All Oracle Fusion Middleware products (except for Oracle Web Tier and Oracle Identity Management with Oracle Internet Directory only) require the presence of an application server on your system. All Oracle Fusion Middleware products support Oracle WebLogic Server as the application server. Beginning with 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.4.0), some products also support IBM WebSphere as the application server. For the latest information in application server support, refer to the System Requirements and Supported Platforms for Oracle Fusion Middleware 11gR1 document on the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page.

The top-level directory for all Oracle Fusion Middleware products is called the Middleware home; this directory serves as a container for the Oracle WebLogic Server home, Oracle Common home, and one or more product Oracle homes. The Middleware home directory is created when Oracle WebLogic Server is installed as the application server. The WebLogic Server home directory is inside the Middleware home and is created when Oracle WebLogic Server is installed. Figure 2-1 shows the directory structure after a typical Oracle WebLogic Server installation:

Some of the notable directories in the Middleware home when created by the Oracle WebLogic Server installation are the WebLogic Server home (wlserver_10.3), the directory for the JDK which you can use for product installations (jdk160_29), and the Oracle Coherence directory, which is used by Oracle Service Bus for its business service result caching functionality (coherence_3.7).

If you choose to use IBM WebSphere as your application server, then you must still manually create a Middleware home directory where your Oracle Fusion Middleware products will be installed, as shown in Figure 2-2. The Middleware home and WebSphere home do not have any relation to each other and can be located anywhere on your system.

Figure 2-2 Directory Structure after an IBM WebSphere Installation and Middleware Home

If you are installing Oracle Web Tier or Oracle Identity Management with only Oracle Internet Directory where an application server is not required, you must still manually create a Middleware home directory on your system.

2.2.2 Oracle Home and Oracle Common Home Directories

Each Oracle Fusion Middleware product must be installed in its own Oracle home location. When a product is installed, two Oracle home directories are created: the product Oracle home and the Oracle Common home.

The product's software binaries will be installed into the product Oracle home; no runtime process can write to this directory.

The Oracle Common home contains the binary and library files required for the Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control and Java Required Files (JRF). There can be only one Oracle Common home within each Middleware home.

Both the product Oracle home (in the example shown in Figure 2-3, the SOA Oracle home) and Oracle Common home directories must reside inside an existing Middleware home directory:

2.2.2.1 Creating the Product Oracle Home

The product Oracle home directory can be created in the following ways:

Before running the installation, you can create your Oracle home directory on your system. Remember that the Oracle home must reside inside the Middleware home directory, and it must also be an empty directory. Then, when you run the installer and are asked to provide the location of your Oracle home, you can specify the directory you have created.

While running the installer, you can specify the name of a new directory. This directory will automatically be created for you by the installer and will be located inside the Middleware home directory.

2.3.1 WebLogic Server Domain

After a product is installed, it can be configured into a WebLogic Server domain. See Oracle Fusion Middleware Concepts for more information about WebLogic Server domains.

During configuration, on the "Specify Domain Name and Location" screen, you will be asked for the location where you want to store data for your domains and applications. Specifically, you will be asked for:

Domain name

Domain location

Application location

The domain location and domain name together are referred to as the domain home. For example, on a UNIX operating system, if you specified /home/Oracle/Middleware/domains as your domain location and soa_domain as your domain name, the domain home would be /home/Oracle/Middleware/domains/soa_domain.

The application location and domain name together are referred to as the application home. For example, on a Windows operating system, if you specified C:\Oracle\Middleware\applications as your application location, then the application home would be C:\Oracle\Middleware\applications\soa_domain.

Note that a directory with the specified domain name is created in both the specified domain location and application location.

The domain home and application home can be created anywhere on your system. When you run the Configuration Wizard, the default location for the domain home is user_projects/domains under the Middleware home. The default location for the application home is user_projects/applications, also under the Middleware home. It is recommended that you create your domain home and application home outside of both the Middleware home and Oracle home directories, so that in the event you need to patch either the Middleware home or Oracle home, your domain and application information would remain untouched.

For more information about domain configuration, see the Installation Guide for your product. For recommendations about configuring a domain in an enterprise production environment, see the Enterprise Deployment Guide for your product.

Figure 2-4 Directory Structure after a WebLogic Server Domain is Created

Notice that each product has its own Oracle home directory. To differentiate among all the product Oracle home directories, the install guides typically refer to each Oracle home by product name; for example, the Oracle home for Oracle SOA Suite is referred to as the SOA Oracle home, while the Oracle home for Oracle WebCenter Suite is referred to as the WebCenter Oracle home.

2.3.4 Extending an Existing Domain

During installation and configuration, you may chose to extend an existing domain rather than creating a new domain. Extending a domain means that you add products and funtionality to an existing domain. If, for example, you first install Oracle SOA Suite to create a new domain, then install Oracle WebCenter while choosing to extend the existing Oracle SOA Suite domain, then your topology would look like the one shown in Figure 2-7:

In essence, you are adding the products and functionality of Oracle WebCenter Suite to the existing Oracle SOA Suite domain.

Not all Oracle Fusion Middleware products can be configured or used in conjunction with other Oracle Fusion Middleware products. If you intend to configure multiple products in your domain, make sure you have read "Domain Extension Interoperability" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Interoperability and Compatibility Guide.

2.3.5 Oracle Instance and WebLogic Server Domain

Figure 2-8 shows the directory structure when two products are installed, but one product (Oracle SOA Suite) is configured in a WebLogic Server domain (because it consists of Java components) while the other product (Oracle WebTier) is configured in an Oracle Instance (because it consists of system components):

Figure 2-8 Directory Structure with an Oracle Instance and a WebLogic Server Domain

2.4.1 Determining Unique Server and Domain Names

If you choose to create multiple domains on a single machine, make sure that each domain has a unique name. When you are running the Configuration Wizard to create and configure your domains, be sure to specify a unique domain name on the "Specify Domain Name and Location" screen. For example, in Figure 2-6, the WebCenter domain might have the name wc_domain, while the SOA domain could be called soa_domain. Refer to the product installation guides for more information.

2.4.2 Checking Port Numbers Across Multiple Oracle Homes

When you are configuring multiple domains or multiple Oracle home directories, you must also make sure that the Administration Server and Managed Servers in each domain and Oracle home all use unique port numbers. There is no provision for checking port numbers across multiple domains, so you will have to keep track of this manually.

One way to do so is to use the staticports.ini file, which contains a record of all the ports that are in use on your system to help avoid conflicts. Some of the product installers allow you to select Specify Ports using Configuration file on the Configure Ports screen during installation.

For more information, see "Managing Ports" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide.

2.4.2.1 Customizing the Administration Server Port Number

To customize the Administration Server port number, select Administration Server on the "Select Optional Configuration" screen in the Configuration Wizard. This will cause the Configure the Administration Server screen to appear, on which you can specify the Administration Server port number.

2.4.2.2 Customizing the Manager Server Port Numbers

To customize the Managed Server port numbers, select Managed Servers, Clusters and Machines on the "Select Optional Configuration" screen in the Configuration Wizard. This will cause the Configure Manager Servers screen to appear, on which you can specify the port numbers for your managed servers.